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ignite Institute for Global Network Innovation in Technology Education Toyohashi University of Technology, Institute for Global Network Innovation in Technology Education News from Penang （Vol.8 2016/2/29） Reports My Lectures in Malaysia Hideaki Misawa, National Institute of Technology, Ube College In this report I describe my lectures that I gave in more difficult than that at PSP, the understanding of Penang, Malaysia, in February, 2016. the students seemed to be good. During the lecture, I made lecture materials for two 90 minute slots because I was getting used to teaching in English little under the theme of “A Brief Introduction to by little, I was able to pay attention to my grammatical Information Theory” because I have taught the course errors and fidgeting with a laser pointer that I had of Information Theory at my college and I will be able noticed by watching the videos of the lectures at PSP. to utilize the lecture materials in the near future. I think watching a lecture video is important to notice I gave my first lecture at Politeknik Seberang Perai common errors and behavioral habits objectively by (PSP), which is a three-year school for fostering oneself. engineers with practical skills. Students of PSP can get After finishing my lectures in Penang, I think that if a Diploma, which nearly corresponds to an Associate I am not competent to carry out teaching in Japanese Degree in Japan, after graduation. Fifty third-year such as explanation, discussion and interaction, I students, who are taking a Diploma in Network at the cannot do them in English as a matter of course. To Department of Information and Computer Technology, make lectures taught in English effective, as a basic attended the lecture. Since I had never given a lecture step, we need to speak aloud, slowly and clearly. in English for 90 minutes, I was nervous and “Teacher Voice” is a good keyword that represnts this exhausted. From the result of a questionnaire survey, situation. When we don’t feel confident about the most common comments were on my English as I explaining something in English, we tend to speak in a had expected. Although the students seemed not to weak voice, quickly and unclearly. Bearing “Teacher understand explanations based on equations well, they Voice” in mind, I need to keep on improving my were responsive to my questions. I should have taught teaching in English as well as my teaching ability in a more interactive way. itself. I delivered my second lecture to the same students as in the first lecture at PSP. I was less nervous in this lecture than in the first lecture and I was able to enjoy the lecture. The result of the survey for this lecture was better than that for the first lecture. My third lecture was held at the School of Computer Sciences, University Science Malaysia (USM). Forty six first-year students attended the Fig．Lecture in PSP. lecture and 35 of them major in mathematics. Although the lecture content at USM was slightly 5 About what I obtained and learned in Penang Mio Kobayashi, National Institute of Technology, Anan College Apa kabar? Khabar baik! generation system with a local community. In addition, Sudah makan? Sudah! almost all of the audience were interested in the engineering education we were working on. That means, “How are you?” and “I’m good!”, then “Have you already eaten?” and “Yes, I’ve already After finishing participating in the international eaten!” in “Bahasa Melayu.” Those are common conference, “IGNITE 2016,” held on Jan. 27-29, our greetings for people in Malaysia. Honestly saying, it training for teaching in English was kicked into high hasn’t been acceptable for me to stay in Malaysia for gear. In my case, it was scheduled that two classes for our training for teaching in English, because I had a 90 min. and one presentation for teachers about prejudice in my mind that Malaysia is a still engineering education were held in PSP (Politeknik “developing country” and all of the people living in Seberang Perai), one lecture in DISTED college, and the country are “non-native” speakers of English. I three classes in USM. The understandings, didn’t understand why I have to conduct lectures in backgrounds, and interests of students in those school, Malaysia, even though I have already known the college, and university are really different. The lecture schedule of this faculty development program. I conducted for the students in PSP might be understandable but shallow. In terms of students in My first presentation in Malaysia was in USM DISTED college, I couldn’t get enough information of (Universiti Sains Malaysia), University of Science of the students including their interest and motivation for Malaysia. When I had been in TUT before I came to the topic of my lecture, so during lecture, many Malaysia, I had wanted and planned to let the students might be bored in my class. And also, their Malaysian people know about my college which is evaluation for my lecture was very severe, but I working on engineering education and collaborative thought they should be more serious in the lecture. As researches with local industries. Also, I wanted to tell for the students in USM, they were earnest and smart. them that the place where our college is located is They not only studied well but also encouraged me in very famous for LED industry and we are also the class. teaching practical experiments to students with using LED-related technologies. That was the reason why I decided that I tried to have the presentation in USM about the engineering education in our college and collaborative researches with local industries. In the presentation, which were held in Jan. 26, surprisingly, there was a bigger audience than I expected, because it was day off for students, and my mentor, Prof. Low, also said to me that there might be a few audience members. In the presentation, the Ph.D. student who is from Nigeria, was interested in the Prof. Low and me project in my college about a small hydroelectric 6 In terms of my lecture, I tried different ways for preparing. I haven’t believed that I could do well if I prepare scripts in advance because I must depend on the script and I really care about doing exactly the same as the script. That thought is based on my experience for “Pechakucha” style presentation while in Queens College. At that time, even though I prepared script and sat up all night for practicing, I could not make a good presentation. Since that time, I have not prepared any script for presentations in advance. Because of the reason above, I didn’t prepare any scripts for the lectures until I had my lectures in USM. Seriously, I realized that I need to prepare scripts when I need to explain specialized subject and make it clear for students. By preparing what I explain and say, I believe that the explanation must be changed to be clear and refined. As a result of the preparation, in my At the presentation of engineering education lecture in USM, it might be better than those in PSP in USM and DISTED college. During my stay in Penang, Malaysia, I studied many things from people who are living here. Those are not only how to make a good lecture in English but also the attitude and respect for different cultures. In addition, I like their thought that English is just a tool for communication. I realized that I am studying English not for “English” but for making a good lecture and communicating with students. I am aware Lecture in PSP that my feeling for this country was changed. Malaysia was my good teacher. Toyohashi University of Technology Institute for Global Network Innovation in Technology Education Center for International Education 1-1, Hibarigaoka, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan Tel: +81-532-81-5161 Mail:[email protected] 7 .

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